Dr. Margaret (Marmie) Perkins Hess Gallery
Reduction/Relief
September 25, 2026 – January 16, 2027
Curator: Josephine Mills
Mentor and Guest Curator: Katie Marie Bruce
Artists: Sidney Frenette-Ling, Luka de Haan, Emily Metherel, Bree Potuzak, Cassandra Williamson
Featuring printmaking from ULethbridge’s Art Collection and emerging artists.
Inspired by the layers of process evident in printmaking, the goal of this project is to generate productive ‘chatter’ — initially small yet increasingly generative connections and conversations between participants, faculty and staff.
Katie Marie Bruce will be a mentor for this project, selecting art for viewing from the collection, leading workshops in the Faculty of Fine Arts printmaking studio, and supporting artists as they develop new bodies of artwork for exhibition in the Hess Gallery under the title, Reduction/Relief (September 25, 2026 – January 16, 2027). A concurrent exhibition of selected prints from the ULethbridge Art Collection, titled Resource/Resist, will be displayed in the satellite site, the Helen Christou Gallery (September 18, 2026 – January 9, 2027).
Curatorial Statement
The exhibition Reduction/Relief is the result of a new venture by ULethbridge Art Gallery. Five emerging artists, who are connected to Southern Alberta and Treaty 7 territory, were selected for a paid residency that gave them access in summer 2026 to the University’s excellent printmaking facilities, study of prints from the University’s art collection, mentorship by artist and Art Department faculty member Katie Marie Bruce, and studio visits with our exhibition team. I developed the structure of the paid residency with a resulting exhibition as a strategy to support recent Art Studio graduates in establishing their careers while also creating exceptional programming for ULethbridge Art Gallery. Currently the skyrocketing cost of living creates a barrier for emerging artists: most people cannot afford to rent a studio and dedicate time away from paid employment to making art. As well, connecting artists with our outstanding art collection is an effective way to generate innovative exhibitions.
In selecting the inaugural theme for the paid residency and exhibition projects, I knew that printmaking should be the focus for several reasons: printmaking requires specialized equipment that is expensive and difficult to access; one of the strengths of the Art Collection is our holdings of prints; and I knew that Katie Marie Bruce would be an exceptional mentor. All of these proved true. I can’t thank Steve Passey, Insurance and Risk Manager, enough for helping the Art Gallery navigate the bureaucratic processes that would allow artists who are neither students nor employees to have full access to the print studio. The Art Gallery staff were enthusiastic about providing access to artworks in the collection, sharing their knowledge, and searching out prints that fit with each artist’s interests. And Katie went far above my hopes, challenging but also supporting the artists in trying new approaches, pushing their ideas, and attending to the details that bring the process together. Katie also came up with the title for the project, which plays on the terms related to printmaking and to being a recent graduate: “Reduction” draws on the loss of facilities, support, and research options that post-undergraduate artists encounter; “Relief,” therefore, denotes how providing access to specialized facilities and dialogue with mentors and peers, as well as access to the ULethbridge art collection, encourages the production of new work.
Katie’s and my goal for this project was inspired by the layers of process evident in printmaking. We wanted the paid residency to generate productive ‘chatter’ — initially small yet increasingly generative connections and conversations between participants, faculty, and staff. As visitors to the exhibition can see for themselves, the five artists stepped up to this goal and delivered deeply thought-out, ambitious new artworks. Excited by their research and production, we decided to include a case for each artist that gives visitors access to their process, such as sketches, notes, and the materials involved with the various techniques used by the artists.
We knew that visitors would also want to see some of the artworks which inspired the emerging artists. Running concurrently with this exhibition, Katie curated Resource/Resist for our satellite space, the Helen Christou Gallery (September 18, 2026 – January 9, 2027).
Josephine Mills, Director/Curator
This project was made possible with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Participating Artists
SIDNEY FRENETTE-LING
Artist Biography
Sidney Frenette-Ling is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Mississauga, ON. They completed their BFA in Art Studio (2025) at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta. Frenette-Ling’s art practice reflects on digital and analog methods utilizing poetry, digital sculpture, printmaking, and bronze casting to produce their works. He has created public artworks in Lethbridge and Calgary, and worked as a Public Art Assistant to support building inclusive communities, amplifying voices, and fostering relationships across Canada to produce meaningful cultural projects.
Artist Statement
Poetic reflection and embodied processes inspire the imagery in my practice. A narrative congeals together and is expressed visually, either tightening or seeping away. The Reduction/Relief residency allowed me to complete three poems, My Feet Step Before, Looking Closely, and Squeezed Grass, each paired with their own edition of prints.
I practice with a sensitivity to the nature of each medium. In printmaking, I savor the damp dripping paper, plate, pressure, peeling, and revealing. In my sculpture, virtual models are composed, stretched, and sliced. They are physicalized, oozing out, slowly building into their new form. I allow each process to feed into the next, often starting with poetry, moving into sculpture and printmaking, and circling back into writing again.
My Feet Step Before is a Glosa, borrowing 4 lines from my grandmother Agnes Phillips’ poem I Have No Paper Big Enough, 2001. My opportunity to study closely the artwork Metamorphosis by Roloff Beny, inspired me to work with etchings that flowed with darkness and transformation. I am thankful for this residency for providing a chance to delve into Screen printing, an enlightening experience that will continue to inspire me.
BREE POTUZAK
Artist Biography
Bree Potuzak is a 23 year old artist, born and raised in Calgary. Having completed an Art Studio Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Lethbridge, an Undergraduate Thesis and an internship at the ULethbridge Art Gallery, she explores sociopolitical and cultural topics regarding Japanese-Canadian identity and immigration. Bree’s primary practice is in woodblock printmaking and paper-cut art. She aims to find innovative ways to combine mediums and explore modern methods of traditional techniques in her own practice to further develop context and visual interest.
Artist Statement
Throughout the Reduction/Relief Printmaking Residency, I conceptualized and created prints that explored the conversation between creativity, intention and life experience. I took inspiration from the many embossed prints within the ULethbridge Art Collection, finding the minimalist approach of presenting form through physical texture and shadow intriguing. I challenged myself by exploring new methods of printmaking I had not practiced before, and found ways to incorporate imagery and technique that was familiar to works I had created in the past. Thematically and visually, I focused on the concept of time; how time can decay, renew and change. I began to view the works I created over the residency as a self reflection because myself, my art and my practice had changed so much in a short period of time
CASSANDRA WILLIAMSON
Artist Statement
The work I created during this residency began with an initial exploration of the ULethbridge Art Collection focused on printmaking techniques I was already familiar with and wished to expand upon, particularly etching and drypoint, as well as methods I had not explored but held an interest in pursuing, like woodblock. Looking at how artists in the collection approached the relationship between print processes and image creation became the framework through which I determined what images would best suit the processes I wanted to pursue. I examined a work by Walter J. Phillips, taking cues not only from his use of a multi-layer woodblock to capture the many overlapping surfaces of a mountainside but also the harmonious colour palette, redeploying these concepts towards my own imagery. In addition to print process, I also sought out works that focused on the visual language of nature — a linocut of sprouting marshland, a screenprint of a butterfly on cabbage, a stylized etching of a midnight forest that mirrored the simplified approach to natural forms that influences my own practice.
The resulting subject matter featured in my work arose primarily from observations of nonhuman others who are especially excluded from human care and disregarded as non-sentient or otherwise undesirable: the species of bat roosting in my attic, a gathering of slugs, a genus of moths, and butterflies feeding on rotten fruit the same way they feed upon carrion. All of these subjects come from my personal encounters and interests; I choose to care for them, learn about them and locate myself in connection to them in a deliberately relational mode of artistic production. The soft, furry bodies of a Myotis lucifugus with her pup are represented by the fuzzy appearance of drypoint mark-making, drawn from my experience as the downstairs roommate to a maternal colony, to which the female bats return to every year to raise their young. Little Meeting depicts a group of slugs I found while wandering along a lakeside in active search for critters, beside which I placed a flower and captured the photo used as reference for the print. Finally, the imagery of moths and butterflies stems from a long-held interest in lepidoptera that led me to insectariums and personal research projects including a comprehensive digital photo archive of species native to Alberta. This body of work, imagined and created with visual, technical and conceptual reference to the ULethbridge Art Collection’s print holdings, depicts moments of connection between these uncharismatic species so they may be understood in relation to ourselves.
Artist Biography
Cassandra Williamson is a printmaker, curator, visual arts educator and illustrator from Edmonton, now based in Lethbridge/Treaty 7 territory. She holds a BFA in Art History/Museum Studies from the University of Lethbridge and is now working towards a second degree in Public Health. She currently works for the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge as an art instructor and studio tech at Casa. Her art practice is constructed around an ever-evolving personal library of images, concepts and research from which she draws inspiration and subject matter. Working across a wide array of art-making processes, her work primarily considers the natural world, taking an illustrative, stylized approach to depict the strange and remarkable domains of creatures like moths, bats, slugs and more.
EMILY METHEREL
Artist Biography
Emily Metherel is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator. Born and raised in Calgary, Metherel moved to Lethbridge in 2015 to attend the University of Lethbridge where she completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education (2020). Emily has exhibited in multiple group shows as well as the solo exhibition, Imaginary Racetracks (2024), in the Passage Gallery at Casa. As a passionate community collaborator, Metherel has worked with a variety of arts and non-profit organizations across southern Alberta including the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge, Trap\door Artist Run Centre, the Southern Alberta Individualized Planning Association, the Fort Macleod and District Allied Arts, and Inclusion Lethbridge.
Artist Statement
Originally this body of work began as a means to explore non-traditional methods of creating positives for screen prints as a solution to the lack of technology available for students. Moreover I seek to remove the need for individualized technology from the process as a rejection of the computer manufactured image and an embrace of the artist’s mark. I utilized exposure positives created by ripping paper, drawing with pastel on the screen and screen filler, and paint pen on transparency to highlight the diverse and analogue capabilities of screen printing. A style developed through play and heavily influenced by abstract expressionism and pop art, each layer is intuitively registered. With the passing of David Hockney on June 11th 2026 this body of work inadvertently reflects on his life and legacy. Utilizing similar subject matter and concepts, I embrace Hockney’s unorthodox approach to analyze accessibility, technology, and process through screen printing. As the capstone edition to this project, My Little Chickabiddies, I revisit Hockney’s autobiographical and narrative etchings from the early 1960s. This piece functions as a final homage to Hockney as a driving force of inspiration for the project.
LUKA DE HAAN
Artist Biography
Luka de Haan is a multidisciplinary artist situated in Lethbridge/Sikoohkotoki and Treaty 7 territory. Their work investigates what it means to be a person, and pairs intensive personal reflection with inexplicably odd and whimsical phenomena of the natural world. This is realized through drawing, painting, printmaking, ceramics, and textiles. Following graduation from the University of Lethbridge with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in 2023, Luka has worked as an Art Instructor and technician at Casa for the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge. They have served on the board for the artist-run centre Trap\door since 2025.
Note: Due to producing two sets of work that deal with very different themes, I have written two artist statements.
Carnitine series
Visible effects of disability and chronic illness are often mistaken as sad by the able community. Rather than being seeing for their positive effects, medicine and accommodations become representative of the illness and disability they are alleviating. Aids like wheelchairs and canes engender feelings of discomfort and pity. This conflation contributes to illness being dismissed when medicine and aids are not visibly present. For this residency I wanted to explore the reduction that chronic illness causes and the relief that the aids bring. I wanted to reclaim the medicine that treats my metabolic disorder and show how much of a beautiful and comforting thing it is in my eyes.
Community
My screenprint Community is a direct response to Iain Baxter&’s Bagged Day-Glo Oranges from the University’s collection. As part of this residency, we viewed a selection of works from the collection and examined them up close. I was enamored by the bright, playful nature of Bagged Day-Glo Oranges and the unique display of the screenprint in a plastic grocery bag. I’m deeply invested in the accessibility of fine art to general audiences as I firmly believe that art is for everyone, and the presentation of the work in a familiar everyday item spoke to me. Instead of oranges, I focused on a locally obtainable fruit. Rhubarb is not typically bought – it is traded for baked goods and home services, brought over by neighbors and family members, and planted in backyards from previous homeowners. Its association to human relationships and the everyday is harmonious with themes of accessibility in fine art that I wanted to feature.
